Toy Robot Dog

Toy robot dog is star exhibit in S.J. murder trial
By Howard Mintz
Mercury News

The metallic toy robot dog sits on the prosecution table, perched a few feet from the jury and not looking particularly lethal.

But inside a federal courtroom in San Jose, the toy has been an eerie, star exhibit — a replica of the murder weapon in a trial that began unfolding this week against a former Milpitas engineer charged in a revenge plot that killed a local college student six years ago.

Testimony continued today in the trial of David Lin, who allegedly mailed a bomb in a toy robot dog that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Patrick Hsu in 2001. Prosecutors allege that Lin, 39, mailed the device on behalf of Anthony Chang, who is accused of masterminding a plot against the family of Wendy Hsu, his estranged wife and Patrick’s sister.

Now in its fourth day, testimony in Lin’s trial has for the most part focused on Chang, a phantom in the courtroom who remains a fugitive suspected of living in Venezuela. Wendy Hsu testified earlier this week of her abusive, rocky relationship with Chang, who vowed retaliation against her and her family for leaving him.

Lin’s lawyers maintain he never knew there was a bomb in the package he mailed for Chang, and the outcome of the trial may well hinge on prosecutors’ ability to prove otherwise. Lin faces life in prison if convicted of murdering Patrick Hsu.

Today, the prosecution provided what may be its key testimony linking Lin to the bomb plot. Jenny Barrera, Chang’s former girlfriend, testified in detail how she watched Chang assemble the lethal device in their Las Vegas apartment weeks before Patrick Hsu’s death, taking apart the toy and inserting a pipe bomb inside.

Link & Image : mercurynews

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